1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to board games with a racing theme, and methods of using same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a racing board game in which a plurality of players strategically race to the finish along a simulated race course having a number of racing lanes. Each of the racing lanes is designated as one of the four suits in a standard deck of playing cards, and at least one deck of standard playing cards is used as the primary means for determining each player's potential movements along the simulated race course.
2. Description of Relevant Art
There are known board games in which players sequentially move playing pieces around a simulated race course in a race to the finish. Some known racing board games are, for example, disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,583,488 entitled "RACING GAME", 4,057,254 entitled "APPARATUS FOR PLAYING A HORSE-RACING GAME", 4,357,017 entitled "AUTO RACING GAME WHEREIN A NUMBERED ARRAY AND PLAYER-ACTUATED DISCS DETERMINE RACE CAR MOVEMENT", and 4,874,177 entitled "HORSE RACING GAME".
Known racing board games, as exemplified by the above patents, are generally disadvantageous because (1) they are relatively complex and involved to learn; (2) they take a relatively long time to play; and/or (3) they are not sufficiently, strategically involved, and correspondingly players lose interest. For example, the horse racing game disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,177 attempts to mimic many aspects of an actual horse race by incorporating horse performance cards bearing personal information regarding actual horses, a number matrix referring to a horse's performance in an actual (previous) racing event, tables by which variable conditions of an actual horse racing event may be taken into account, and a race record for charting the progress and outcome of the simulated horse race. As will be understood, these several features make the game relatively complex and involved. The racing game disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,583,488, on the other hand has only a limited element of strategy involved therewith and may become uninteresting to players; while the racing game disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,357,017 has substantially no strategy involved therewith, but instead permits playing pieces to be randomly moved around a race track based on the player's manipulation of tiddlywink type devices. Still further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,254 merely discloses a horse racing board game for a plurality of players in which each player has a marker that moves along slots defined in the surface of the game board, but no directions or rules are provided for controlling movement of the markers around the board.
Known racing board games, including those discussed above, have thus failed as a whole to provide a racing board which is relatively simple in construction, simple to lean, significantly strategically involved, and can be played to completion in a relatively short time.